Interviews

• Richard Dawkins

  Richard Dawkins, though perhaps not well known in Europe, is one of the world’s most controversial and influential intellectual figures. He holds the Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. His book ‘The selfish Gene’ published in 1976, in which he argued that the “the selfish gene was the basic engine of evolutionary development.” This book became one of the most influential scientific texts of modern times.

• Colin Dexter Interview

  The many television series, based on Colin Dexter’s books have made both Oxford and his heroes, Inspector Morse and Lewis, household names throughout Europe. As you would expect from such a popular writer, he has been given many honours and awards including the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace for his services to literature.

• Lindsey Davis - An Interview

  I talked with Lindsey Davis, the famous authoress, in the lounge of Rome’s Hotel Forum near the ancient Forum that plays such a vital setting for many of her Falco detective novels. Lindsey Davis is busy at work on a short story commissioned by BBC Radio 4, in a new initiative, which pairs writers with reading groups in the central England region; it will be broadcast in 2008. Then she next turns to the nineteenth novel of her highly successful historical comic detective series set in the first century AD of the Roman Empire under Emperor Vespasian. It will be set in Roman Alexandria and Lindsey comments, 'The challenge is to avoid all mention of Pharaohs!'

• Fran Sandham

  VISITING the Oxford Literary Festival recently, Nicholas Newman, of Oxford Prospects magazine, interviewed travel writer, Fran Sandham, author of TRAVERSA, A Solo Walk Across Africa, from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean.

• Brian Aldiss - Interview

  It’s amazing how many people have seen, or read, Brian’s work. Hollywood directors Simon Channing-Williams, Roger Corman, Stanley Kubrick and Spielberg have all adapted his tales into films. Three notable adaptions have been Brothers of the Head, Frankenstein Unbound and A.I. However working with such famous film directors has certainly been a remunerative, exciting, but not necessarily a satisfactory experience.

• Bjorn Lomborg

  Dr. Bjorn Lomborg aged 42, heads the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, is adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School Denmark, and author of the best selling books ‘The Skeptical Environmentalist’ and ‘Cool It’. Bjorn was named one of the "50 people who could save the planet" by the Guardian newspaper in 2008.

• Julia Gray Hollywood script writer

  Julia Gray, Hollywood script writing consultant and CEO of the ‘Script writing Department’, brought these little known facts, to my attention. I met her for lunch with Julia at Oxford’s historic Ashmolean museum rooftop restaurant. She was due to give a one-day film script writing workshop in the town. The Ashmolean museum is a favourite haunt of Oxford’s intelligentsia and artists, such as Colin Dexter and Richard Dawkins.